One Tired Tony
by Fracturedfixture
Summary: For kweandee. The prompt was about Tony being tired and overworked after fighting all these battles, shield work, and his own industries, and his team taking care of him. I hope I did the prompt justice.


"Sir, you're almost late for your company meeting."

Tony sighed at the AI's notice. He'd just finished talking to the Council about Natasha. They'd tried to tell Nick that she was dangerous. Tony couldn't just let his lady super spy die; she was important in the Avengers. Hell, she'd saved their asses many times. And she deserved better than some assassination because she was skilled, more skilled then the Council had known. It was there fault for not reading her files. (Even if they were so classified that only Nick Fury himself could read it.)

Now he had to go sit in a room with twelve people and Pepper. While he was no longer the CEO of Stark Industries, he had to sit through the meeting once a month, every month, and get the debriefing about everything going on. No longer was Tony going to trust anyone else completely with his business. It wasn't an issue with Pepper, not at all, but she had to divide her trust into twelve other people and THEY could easily be another Obadiah. Tony could screw up a lot, but he'd be damned if he screwed his industry over again.

That's why he showed up twenty-three minutes late without even so pitiful an excuse as coffee.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Sir, Frank Castle is in Manhattan again."

Tony started to grind his teeth. Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher, was back in town. While he was no enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, the man had a history of getting in the way of missions. In one undercover mission of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Punisher busted in and started shooting down the drug dealers. Agent Melinda May was certainly not a fan of revealing herself and fighting him hand-to-hand.

So he flew out of the garage and into the skies of his city, frowning. He was certainly feeling spread-thin on days like this. And god knows they were getting more and more frequent.

"Sir, Nick Fury is requesting your presence."

Tony's inappropriate response was cut short.

"It's about Clint."

Tony's lips played with a sigh. _Much too frequent._

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Tony crossed his arms. Well, the suit's arms. He didn't bother to get out of it when he got to the secret base. Nick Fury was supposed to be dead- retired to the Avengers and Maria, but here he was. The issue of Clint wasn't over. "C'mon, Nicky. It was brainwashing."

The one-eyed man's expression remained stoic, if not just a tad bit irritated. "We need a better reason. He hasn't received any backlash-"

"You mean aside from his brain getting toyed with. You mean besides the guilt of taking out so many agents. You mean-"

"I get it, Stark." Nick was tense, eyeing the hero down. Then he sighed and the tension left his shoulders. "But the Council will act without my permission, _as we've seen before_," he added under his breath, "and I need to keep them at bay or Clint will get some form of punishment. Brainwashing doesn't excuse anything."

Tony shook his head. Then JARVIS spoke through his suit. "You'll be late for your date with Pepper, Sir, unless you leave immediately."

Tony looked at Nick and the man just shooed him away with his hand. "This isn't over, Stark. Go on." He was still in a heavy sigh as Tony shot up through the window and out to the sky again.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Tony played with his wine glass, staring at his steak with an unfocused, thoughtful expression.

"Distracted, much?" Pepper looked at him with concern.

Tony leaned back and put his glass back. "Yeah, I'm sorry." He cupped his forehead. "Just a lot of stuff on my plate."

"I can see that," she said with a weak smile and a pointed glance at his untouched food.

Tony smiled back at her.

They were pretty quiet for rest of the meal, uttering small talk here and there. JARVIS didn't mention that Bruce needed to see him in the lab until afterwards.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"You alright, Tony?"

The scientist looked very worried. He eyed the hero across the room and bit his lip. Tony Stark, the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and Iron Man, was staring at his own hand. Had been doing it for ten minutes already. Staring. At. His. Hand.

Bruce started walking over, but Tony didn't seem to notice. Just looked at his hand. He was making a fist, but didn't look angry.

"Let's take a break," Bruce cooed as he lightly put his hand on Tony's shoulder.

The smaller man jumped. He turned to Bruce, but didn't speak. His eyes were glossed over. Tony was beyond tired.

"Let's take a break," Bruce repeated. He squeezed Tony's shoulder very softly before nudging him over to the lab door. Tony followed the direction, but walked like a zombie.

Bruce put Tony in bed.

Then he assembled the avengers.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"What should we do?" Clint Barton was checking out his arrows, making sure they were in good shape. Natasha was sitting next to him on the couch, legs draped over his lap. She was still attentive, unlike her fellow agent.

Thor was unable to make the meeting. Something about a celebration that was too important for him to leave. Steve was running late. Pepper was sitting in a cushioned chair, phone turned off so she could listen without distraction.

Bruce was playing with his fingers nervously.

Natasha sighed. "I suppose we should give him a day off."

Pepper frowned. "So we should turn off his communication to the company? He'll only worry. And we can't take away his access to the internet and television, that's not relaxing, but if there's an invasion or fight of some kind, he'll want to be there."

Natasha nodded. Bruce wiped his face with his hands. "I don't know..."

"Maybe we should have a movie night," Clint suggested without looking up from his arrow.

Natasha smiled and looked at the two adults who _wer__e_ paying attention. "We should."

Pepper looked at her fingers thoughtfully. "He'd certainly enjoy it..."

"Perhaps someone else can cover Manhattan for tonight?" Bruce felt excited. Tony would love their surprise.

Everyone was happy, grinning ear-to-ear as they tossed out suggestions for movies and treats when Steve walked in. His look was suspicious more than anything. "What did I miss?"

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Tony woke up from his fourteen hour nap, feeling well-rested with only the slightest hint at grogginess. After all, sleeping too long could mess up a body's readiness for the day. Pepper was in the bed next to him, and it was pretty dark in the room. The only logical conclusion was that it was night time already. "Damn, my sleeping schedule is totally ruined..." he mumbled under his breath as he slipped out of the bed and onto the cool floor.

JARVIS welcomed him. "Goodnight, sir."

"Ha ha," Tony said without any humor in his voice. "I get it, I get it. I slept a long time."

"The Avengers are waiting for you, sir." JARVIS got straight to the point.

Tony's heart took a leap as he stopped his journey to the bedroom door. He opened his mouth, but didn't speak because JARVIS beat him to it. "There's no emergency, sir."

"Then what do they want?"

"Apparently, they just wanna 'hang out'," the AI answered.

Tony knit his brow and thought for a second before determining that it wasn't gonna blow up in his face. Last time they were supposed to 'hang out', Thor brought some Asgardian light-thing and it made the toaster explode. Yeah... not again.

Tony took his sweet time walking down the stairs to the next two floors down. He could have taken the elevator, but he was still half-asleep and wanted to surprise them- his team could be waiting by the elevator to ambush him with water guns for all he knew. He was wearing his oversized HULK t-shirt and some green pajama pants. And if their hang out required clothes, he wanted no part of it.

Turns out it didn't.

Everyone else was in pajamas. Natasha was wearing Hawkeye pajamas and was cuddled next to Clint, who was wearing Black Widow pajamas. Bruce was wearing loose IRON MAN pajamas and sitting on the cushioned chair so his legs hung off the arm- very leisure for the troubled scientists. Steve was clad in pajamas that had all the Avengers on it. Thor wasn't there, but there was a little plushie of him sitting next to Steve, who was on the opposite side of the couch as the assassins.

Tony sat down at the feet of Bruce so he didn't have to move Thor to be on the couch. Bruce rubbed his back as the movie started. How to Train Your Dragon started playing, and the inventor smiled.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

After the movie, JARVIS played the sequel, and then Tangled. Everyone had fallen asleep half-way through the final movie besides Tony, who was wide awake. He grabbed blankets for his sleeping team and made sure they were in comfortable positions. And then, he went to his bedroom to kiss Pepper on the forehead. Being tired wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
